


For the Greater Good

by dark_pookha



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 20:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6534424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dark_pookha/pseuds/dark_pookha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Albus finally confronts Gellert.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the Greater Good

Coruscating energies played between them, red and golden. Spectral animals rose up only to be destroyed by the ground opening up and swallowing them.

Albus gritted his teeth and sent a devastating wave of sheer force at Gellert. Gellert grinned as he swept it aside with a negligent shake of his wand. His wand, an elder wand, seemed alive in his hand. It twitched of its own volition and shook off every effort to dislodge it.

Albus Disapparated with a bang and reappeared behind Gellert. Gellert turned quickly, seeming to anticipate this move, but his wand wasn’t so easily fooled. It punched a hole through the illusion of Albus and then projected a Shield Charm to protect him from the stunner coming from Albus’s last location.

“You can’t defeat me!” Gellert laughed. “Not as long as I hold the Elder Wand.” He lowered his wand and stepped back against the wall of the hotel room. Smashed furniture and books were strewn everywhere and the wireless in the corner sparked and emitted static from its ruined speaker.

Albus cancelled his Disillusionment Charm and stepped forward, his wand also lowered. When he spoke his voice was thick.

“Be that as it may, Gellert; I have to try.” He sighed. “I can’t let you continue.”

“Join me.” Gellert moved toward Albus. “It can be like it was. We can rule together: the wizarding world united under our banner, not just mine.”

Albus shook his head sadly. “We can’t go back. I was wrong to think that we could rule peacefully. Taking power by force is never a path to freedom.”

Gellert wiped a streak of blood from his face and licked it off his finger. “Taking power by force is the only way to take power. I learned that when I stole the Elder Wand and every time since when someone has tried to take it from me or try to stop me.” He smiled as he licked his finger again. “You’re not the first assassin sent against me.”

“I know that, but I am the best.” Albus said it without emotion.

“Please don’t make me kill you…”

“Like you’ve killed all the others who tried to stop you?”

“Not all…” Gellert began before Albus interrupted him.

“True, not all; you sent McKinnon back unharmed. Why?”

“He never really wanted to fight me, you know.” Gellert smiled again. “He understood at last that giving his life to try to stop me would have accomplished nothing. Even if he became a martyr, that wouldn’t be enough to stop me; it wouldn’t have been enough to rally around.”

“What do you think will happen if you kill me?”

“If I kill you, then no one will dare to challenge me again.” Gellert raised his wand. “If I kill the greatest wizard of our time, then I will become the greatest wizard of our time.”

“And not just the most feared.”

“And not just the most feared,” Gellert nodded in agreement.

“In that case, strike me down.” Albus put his wand in his robe pocket.

Gellert raised his wand.

“But first, there’s something I have to show you.” He pulled a photo out of his pocket.

A much younger Gellert, his hair shining and his eyes bright smiled as he and Albus tossed a ball with a young girl. Nothing could be heard, but her giggles were obvious.

“This is what you gave up to follow your path.” Albus stepped forward and held the photo up as a shield.

Gellert’s hand shook for the first time in the duel.

“I don’t…I didn’t mean for…” He stammered.

A tear rolled down Albus’s cheek into his closely-cropped beard. “No. None of us meant to, but she’s still dead.”

“A necessary sacrifice.” Gellert’s face hardened and he raised his wand again, his hand no longer shaking.

“Can you justify anything, even the murder of a young girl?” Albus asked.

“It was an accident!” Gellert roared back. He poked Albus with his wand and burned a hole through his robe, right over Albus’s heart. Albus gripped his wrist tightly.

“Go ahead, kill me too and finish your rise to power.” He pulled Gellert closer and whispered into his ear. “Go ahead and kill the last of yourself. Someone will be along soon to take the wand from you; you know its history.”

Gellert tried to pull back, but Albus had him gripped tightly. His wand tip smoked as it continued to burn Albus.

Albus leaned forward suddenly and kissed Gellert. He released his hold on Gellert’s wrist and Gellert dropped the wand as he pulled Albus in and returned the kiss. It lasted mere seconds, but it also lasted a lifetime. Finally, Albus stepped back.

“I should have done that years ago,” he said. “Maybe it would have prevented a lot of pain.”

“Your pain, or mine?” Gellert asked.

“Both.” Albus pointed at the wand, resting now at Gellert’s feet. “Go ahead, pick it up and do what you have to.”

Gellert stepped back from the wand. “I can’t, Albus, I just can’t.” He sat heavily on the broken armchair.

“There’s nothing I can do, Gellert.” Albus knelt by the chair. Gellert’s hand reached out and stroked Albus’s hair. “I have to take you in or kill you and I don’t know if I can do either.”

“Take me in. You defeated me and the wand is yours.” Gellert looked at the Elder Wand with disgust. “I have only one request. Please make sure they put me in Nurmengard rather than Azkaban.”

“I shall, Gellert.”

Neither of them moved for the longest time, except for Gellert’s hand stroking Albus’s hair and both of their flowing tears.

The Elder Wand lay patiently, waiting for its new owner.


End file.
